Leon Engelbrecht
No image available
/ 4 October 2005

Denel denies breaching Indian law

Indian defence journal SP’s Land Forces has defended the accuracy of a report that the country’s defence ministry has initiated action to cancel all contracts with Denel. The South African arms maker has denied the report and the Indian high commission in Pretoria has indicated the contracts may just have been suspended.

No image available
/ 3 October 2005

India cancels all deals with Denel

India has cancelled all deals with South African state arms manufacturer, Denel. Indian media reports say the South Asian country’s government decided that the South African company had violated contractual clauses by using undue influence and agents or agency commissions to win a contract for 400 anti-material rifles.

No image available
/ 29 September 2005

Kebble won’t step into son’s shoes

Roger Kebble, father of slain mining magnate Brett Kebble, is not planning to step into his son’s shoes. ”I’m just a fairly simple miner. I will stick to my knitting. I don’t think I’m going to step into those shoes,” Kebble told a press conference at his son’s home in Inanda, Johannesburg, on Thursday.

No image available
/ 22 September 2005

Mbeki calls for more black accountants

South Africa needed more black accountants, President Thabo Mbeki told the South African Institute of Chartered Accountants (Saica) on Wednesday evening. Mbeki was speaking at a dinner marking Saica’s 25th anniversary. ”I think we will agree that we should mobilise more resources” to help train black accountants, Mbeki said.

No image available
/ 16 September 2005

How a bad weld caused the Meredale flood

The burst pipe that flooded Meredale in southern Johannesburg with 80-million litres of water in July was the result of corrosion and a 41-year-old bad weld, Rand Water said on Friday. Rand Water chief executive Simo Lushaba said the pipe that burst developed a leak along a seam that had been welded in 1964.

No image available
/ 24 August 2005

Tough times ahead for loss-making Denel

Denel will have to make tough calls if it is to survive, its new chief executive, Shaun Liebenberg, said on Tuesday. Addressing the media in Pretoria on the company’s future plans, he said nothing is sacred and even pet projects such as the Rooivalk attack helicopter will need to perform or be canned.

No image available
/ 9 May 2005

SA war veterans remember end of ‘Hitler’s war’

Nearly 300 World War II veterans took a salute from South African National Defence Force chief of corporate services Lieutenant General Themba Matanzima on Sunday at a ceremony at the Rand Regiments’ Memorial in Johannesburg. The veterans, wearing their medals with jacket and tie, marched proudly by, to remember the end of the conflict exactly 60 years before.

No image available
/ 28 April 2005

Africa ‘not spending enough on defence’

No African country is spending enough on defence, a conference on military budgetary processes in Africa heard on Thursday. ”Donor concerns about defence budgets are relative,” African Security Dialogue and Research (ASDR) executive director Eboe Hutchful told a gathering at the African Union conference centre in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.